R1 zone in Wolfville at risk

We have to applaud another Wolfville resident for standing up and calling this Council to account. This is not online yet but here’s the drift quoted from our fish wrapper copy of the Kings County Register April 1 front page article.:

Wolfville resident Doug Lutz used his considerable legal skills to make an appeal last week for the town to retain its R1 zone as the municipal planning strategy review heats up. Lutz gave an overview of his research into the town’s documentation, pointing out that R1 has been protected since 1978.

At each mandated review, he contended that concern rose about density in the R1 zone. Lutz noted that in 1999, public attitudes called for its preservation.

Bob Wrye replied to this that times change and “There was nothing wrong with our procedure“. Well, we could quibble with that when R1 residents were not polled at all to find out how they felt about this change. Surely that would have been a sensible first step. Instead of course they did a silly, general, philosophical, “community wide” survey -which only had about 380 responses, cost a bundle and never included any specifics, especially concerning tampering with the R1 zone and therefore got little attention from the residents most concerned.

There is another meeting of the PSAC coming up… this time at the Irving Centre which will meet April 8 at 7 pm ” to look at the residential section of the draft MPS”

If you live in a residential zone in Wolfville you should go or send a proxy reporter (as we often do) to this meeting. Be aware that there are 4 councillors on the task force that has recommended these changes to full council. It will take significant public pressure to reverse their recommendation to eliminate R1 because their votes can pull it through if they don’t see any countering arguments which make them change face.

To eliminate R1 flies in the face of all arguments to retain mixed housing in Wolfville. You cannot retain “mixed” housing in a small town without preserving some high end areas, just as you cannot do it by eliminating lower end areas – which some might wish for.